At the entrance to the Palm Tree Hotel, a crowd of onlookers had already gathered.
Roch, Big Eater Margo's second mate, took off his white top hat and squeezed into the crowd, wanting to see how Danitz would end up.
He felt the Mandated Punishers' pursuit was nearing its end. Danitz had now driven himself into a dead end. If Flame fell into the hands of the Church of Storms, he would persuade Captain Margo to halt the operation.
At that moment, someone beside him bumped into him. Rowan looked over and saw a short, skinny man with the face of a local resident and a strong scent of spices about him. He frowned and moved aside.
Suddenly.
An explosion came from inside the hotel. Thick smoke continuously poured from its windows, while the hotel owner cursed Danitz, the great pirate, with a miserable expression.
Cordova frowned and nodded to several Mandated Punishers. They immediately rushed inside. Whether there were traps within or not, recklessness was courage. A few minutes later, one Mandated Punisher ran out, filthy and disheveled.
"How was it?" Cordova asked.
The Mandated Punisher shook his head. "He's gone. We searched everywhere upstairs and downstairs, every room. We found no sign of Danitz."
Just as he finished speaking, another Mandated Punisher ran out. "The target escaped through the sewers."
Cordova froze for a moment. The sewers were a maze of twisted, complex passages. If Danitz had fled into them, he would be hard to pursue.
But this was fine too.
Might as well let Flame go.
The thought surfaced in the deacon's mind. To make the act convincing enough, he had not told the Mandated Punishers that this was merely a performance.
He had only kept the Mandated Punishers from bringing Sealed Artifacts. Otherwise, not even ten